Théâtre et cafés à Paris

Yves Jubinville : Theatres and cafés in Paris. In the cultural geography of 18th-century Paris, there were two "institutions" which complicated the hitherto untroubled activity of the élites gravitating around the monarchy : the theatre and the café, which increased in number (in particular the cafés) throughout the century. From them rose a sort of murmer, even din, which created a certain disorder in the society of the Old Régime. This study looks above all at the disorder of discourse ; for cafés and theatres were places which encouraged exchanges of all sorts and in particular verbal exchanges. It was here, in the 18th Century, that speech originated, in the form of rumours, secrets, mockery, pamphlets — all forms which defied the dominant rules of discourse. It is easy to understand the threat they posed, echoed in the works by Diderot (Neveu de Rameau) and Voltaire (L'Ecossaise) analysed here. Their "mocking speech" endangered the social consensus and the general norms of legitimacy which framed the struggles between the old (Academies, court society) and new (republic of letters, salons) organisations of cultural power.Jubinville Yves. Théâtre et cafés à Paris. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°28, 1996. L'Orient. pp. 415-430